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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24922105">This Drifting Voyager</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/maelstromdeparture/pseuds/maelstromdeparture'>maelstromdeparture</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Fluff, Friendship, Hitchhiking, How Do I Tag, I guess technically?, Light Angst, Photography, Road Trips, Social Media, World Travel, can be read with or without romance, finding yourself, or something like that, relationships were supposed to be platonic but they wrote the romance themselves, vaguely gothic american south and midwest vibes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:14:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24922105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/maelstromdeparture/pseuds/maelstromdeparture</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Choi Soobin's life has been planned out from the moment he was born, he was simply a side character in his own life. Deciding he has had enough of not having a voice in his own life he decides there is no reason to stay so he buys a one way ticket to a country where he doesn't speak the language. Along the way he accidentally becomes a popular travel blogger, travels the world, finds kindred spirits in a variety of places, he finds brotherhood and love among the other four boys as the five of them find themselves, and maybe without realizing it he learns to live and finds he has been on his own path all along.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Choi Beomgyu/Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun/Huening Kai/Kang Taehyun, Choi Soobin &amp; Everyone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>This Drifting Voyager</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this chapter is just soobin and yeonjun and their roadtrip across america, the other boys may have a chapter each or i might combine a couple of them into one chapter we'll see how it goes writing </p><p>i had the idea for this like three hours ago and it just happened, so it's unedited and will remain unedited until i have written all of it </p><p>can you tell that i wish i was traveling right now???? </p><p>anyway enjoy! :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>            Choi Soobin was the quiet kid his whole life. He was smart and studious and followed every rule like he was supposed to. It was supposed to end in success and respect, but it only ended in more and more people ignoring him. He’d learned early on it was only his grades that mattered to his family and anything that mattered to his peers he either didn’t have or couldn’t figure out so he had grown accustomed to having no friends. And when it came time for college Soobin applied like he was supposed to, got in on scholarships like he was supposed to, and then his father mentioned something about him meeting the daughter of one of his business partners and Soobin’s throat closed up making it difficult to breathe and his stomach revolted and he wasn’t sure what he was doing any of this for. He felt trapped and silenced and ignored and he couldn’t take it anymore. So he shoved everything he owned into a duffel bag, transferred the money he made at his own job into his own account without alerting his parents and bought one way ticket to a foreign country where he didn’t speak the language. There was a world out there to see and he wasn’t going to spend his life following a pre-marked path. Maybe he would find his voice along the way. Thailand was fun and Soobin started posting pictures to his Instagram account. From Thailand he went to Singapore and from Singapore to London and from London to Amsterdam and somewhere along the way he started gaining followers on Instagram until he hit over 400,000 and a shoe company reached out wanting to sponsor him. Soobin had nothing better to do and the online job reviewing articles was boring though it was funding most of his travel when he didn’t do it by hitchhiking. The money he made from the sponsorship sent him to America and an American car company reached out to him wanting him to do a series in one of their cars where he did a roadtrip, so Soobin agreed. He tried food in every state he traveled through, he started in New York and took pictures as he traveled all the way west to LA. In Chicago he picked up a friend for the first time.</p><p>            Chicago was chilly and Soobin’s hoodie wasn’t doing quite enough to keep him warm but the car would be warm and the novelty of being on an American road trip was thrilling. Soobin pulled his cell phone out of his pocket as the gas pump filled up the car and snapped a picture of the sunsetting over the gas station. There was a boy with messy blonde hair with dark roots barely starting to grow in sitting on the edge of the curb by the gas station. He was scrolling through his phone and chewing on his thumb, his jeans were torn and his shoes were worn black vans, one of them was untied the string broken, he had bracelets lining one wrist and the other had doodles scribbled on it, his t-shirt was baggy and Soobin wasn’t sure how he wasn’t cold. He snapped a picture before he thought about it, the aesthetic of it exactly what he wanted to remember from this stop on the trip. The gas pump stopped and Soobin put it back and shoved the receipt into the trash can before taking a deep breath and walking over towards the boy. Traveling on his own had forced him to get comfortable talking to strangers and struggling to communicate in places where he didn’t speak the language, and he wanted to put the picture with the boy on his Instagram account, but wouldn’t without permission. He stopped by the boy and the boy looked up at him.</p><p>            “<em>Can I help you?</em>” he asked in what Soobin now recognized as a the American Standard Accent which was not what you found in New York or in New Jersey but was apparently common in Illinois.</p><p>            “<em>Ah, hello, I have a question. I am a Instagram photographer,</em>” said Soobin crouching down and pulling out his phone. “<em>I take a picture of the gas station for my…Instagram. You are in the picture. I am hoping you will uh let me put on Instagram, but if not I will delete.</em>” He swiped to show the boy the picture and the boy’s eyebrows raised.</p><p>            “<em>You’re sure that’s me, man?</em>” he asked and Soobin nodded.</p><p>            “<em>I am sure,</em>” he said, “<em>you think it is not?</em>”</p><p>            “<em>Nah, it’s just that I look so cool. I don’t look like that in real life,</em>” said the boy smiling, “<em>you can post it, um put it on your Instagram, I don’t care. Will you tag me?</em>”</p><p>            “<em>Yes! Yes, I will tag you,</em>” said Soobin quickly swiping through his Instagram and writing the caption before switching his keyboard to the English alphabet so the boy could put his account in for him to tag. The boy did and handed the phone back.</p><p>            “You’re Korean?” he asked and Soobin looked up at him startled.</p><p>            “Yeah,” he said, “holy shit, I haven’t heard Korean in almost two years. You speak Korean?”</p><p>            “My mom came over from Korea right before I was born,” said the boy nodding. “So I probably speak with a weird accent, but I am Korean. Do you mind if I ask why you’re in America?” Soobin posted the picture as he shifted to sit down and nodded.</p><p>            “I like to travel. I run a travel account on Instagram and recently started getting sponsors, so I guess I’m interesting,” said Soobin shrugging, “mostly I just needed to get out. I felt trapped, like I was stuck on a path that my family set out for me and no matter how hard I yelled they didn’t hear me when I said it wasn’t what I wanted. So I took what was mine and ran. Hopped on a plane to Thailand and haven’t looked back since. I came to America from Amsterdam and I’m doing a roadtrip all the way to LA. We’ll see from there.”</p><p>            “That’s so cool,” said the boy, “that’d be awesome. To travel like that, I mean. I’m pretty much stuck here. My grades aren’t good enough to get me to a school other than the community college and mom’s getting remarried soon so I’m out of the house because he wants to start his own family. Either way, I’m stuck here in the middle of no where outside of Chicago. It’d be awesome to see the world.” Soobin chewed on his lip. He shouldn’t do this, he knew that it was dangerous, but he wanted to not be alone anymore.</p><p>            “Come with me,” he said. The boy looked at him surprised.</p><p>            “You don’t even know my name,” he said shaking his head.</p><p>            “So? I can learn your name. There’s plenty of time to learn all about you from here to LA,” said Soobin nodding, “you want out of Chicago and I want to stop being alone. I’m making enough money off sponsor now that I can afford to feed two people so I don’t see why you can’t come with me.” The boy laughed.</p><p>            “You’re crazy,” he said, “you shouldn’t pick up strangers off the side of the road, I could be dangerous.” Soobin shrugged.</p><p>            “I just told you I bought a one way ticket to a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language because I felt like I didn’t belong at home,” said Soobin, “inviting a kid in Chicago to travel with me isn’t nearly as dangerous as that was. At least you could translate.” The boy laughed.</p><p>            “You’re crazy,” he repeated shaking his head, “but I kind of want to see where it gets you. Let’s go.” Soobin beamed and stood up offering the boy his hand. The boy took it as he stood up too.</p><p>            “I’m Choi Soobin, born in December in 2000,” said Soobin, “welcome to the trip.”</p><p>            “No way, dude,” said the boy smiling, “Choi Yeonjun, born in September in 1999.”</p><p>            “Whoa, same family name,” said Soobin nodding, “cool. You’re my hyung then.” Yeonjun laughed.</p><p>            “Yeah, I guess, forgot that was a thing. I really only speak Korean with my mother,” he said pushing his hair off his forehead.</p><p>            “Let’s buy snacks and hit the road,” said Soobin, “do you need to pack anything?”</p><p>            “Nah, I’ll buy clothes on the way,” said Yeonjun shaking his head, “mom kicked me out of the house for the night cause her fiancé is spending the night.” Soobin nodded, he didn’t really want to know where Yeonjun was planning to sleep. Soobin led the way into the gas station and they grabbed a couple of snacks, Yeonjun acted as translator when Soobin tried to ask for directions back to the highway and then they were off. Yeonjun slipped his sneakers off and shifted to sit cross-legged in the passenger seat and leaned forward to fiddle with the radio. He turned the music up to some pop song that Soobin didn’t know and sang along. This was what Soobin really wanted to take a picture of. A nice American boy with the same lost feeling as him, sitting in the passenger seat of his car with the sunset pouring through the window as they flew past fields, his head thrown back as he sang along passionately to a song on the radio with a shitty connection, his blonde dyed hair fanning out messily against the headrest, a soda bottle cradled in the space between his legs, and the feeling that there was a thousand and one things left out there to see. He wasn’t that good of a photographer though, you needed an artist for something like this.</p><p>The picture with Yeonjun in it quickly becomes his most liked picture and Soobin finds himself taking more and more pictures with Yeonjun. One of his followers asks if it’s Soobin in the picture and Soobin tells them no, that he doesn’t take pictures of himself, but that Yeonjun is a willing model who decided to travel with him recently. Yeonjun doesn’t mind and tells Soobin that every picture he takes of him seems unreal, it’s like it’s a different person in the pictures because no one else has ever managed to take a picture of Yeonjun that looks so good. Soobin’s pretty sure Yeonjun’s lying, but he’s not about to tell him that. His favorite is the one that he takes in a hotel in Memphis. Yeonjun’s hair is pushed back by a headband he had bought at the Rock and Soul Museum and he’s wearing an I love St. Lewis T-shirt that hangs off of him, his jeans are still ripped and these ones are rolled up at the ankles, his shoes lie off to the side somewhere and he has a map spread out before him that he’s leaning over with a marker, the cap of it held in his mouth. He’s circling cities and had just glanced up at Soobin making his eyes look bigger in the picture. Soobin doesn’t catch his smile immediately after he realizes Soobin is taking a picture.</p><p>            “We should get you a real camera, Soobinnie,” said Yeonjun the words garbled a little around the marker cap.</p><p>            “Mmm, maybe,” said Soobin, “but what would I do with real pictures?”</p><p>            “A polaroid would be cool,” muttered Yeonjun mostly to himself, “anyway, we should stop at Graceland tomorrow.”</p><p>            “Why?” asked Soobin shifting to sit on the floor next to him, “what’s in Graceland, hyung?”</p><p>            “It’s not a city,” said Yeonjun, “it’s a house. It’s Elvis’s house.”</p><p>            “The king,” said Soobin nodding, Yeonjun had talked excitedly about different musicians all the way through the museum earlier that day. Soobin had taken a lot of pictures and then realized later that most of them had just been Yeonjun excitedly pointing at different exhibits.</p><p>            “Yeah, it’s like a staple we’ve got to see it while we’re here. It’s expensive though so no use going in, but we’ve got to stop and see it,” said Yeonjun nodding, “we should go to Nashville while we’re here too. And see the Grand Ole Opry, that would be awesome.”</p><p>            “You think?” asked Soobin and Yeonjun nodded.</p><p>            “Yeah, and then we head from here to Mississippi and drive along the river, eat some good food, take some good pictures, and then hit New Orleans before going diagonal up the country from there to get to LA,” said Yeonjun pointing at the map as he talked, he drug his finger up from the coast to California.</p><p>            “Anything along the way you want to see?” asked Soobin curious. Yeonjun pointed at a couple of spots on the map.</p><p>            “Oklahoma is supposed to have something call the Gateway to Hell and Robbers Cove which is supposedly the treasure grounds for an outlaw king,” said Yeonjun, “Texas is giant but most of the cool stuff is further down than we’ll probably hit so we’ll avoid it, we could take the panhandle though and see the Palo Duro canyon and Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. From there we could hit Arizona and see the Grand Canyon or we could do New Mexico and see Roswell which has a supposed alien museum and Santa Fe there’s an art museum there that’s interactive and could be cool, the mountains there are pretty too. Now what we should do is go through Oklahoma, through the Texas panhandle, through New Mexico don’t see Santa Fe and just drive through to Arizona, but we should definitely stop at White Sands in New Mexico, we could see the meteor crater in Arizona, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Jerome which is a ghost town, then shoot up this highway to Las Vegas, and then drive straight through the desert to get to LA.”</p><p>            “Let’s do that,” said Soobin nodding, “that sounds like a lot of stops and a lot of fun.”</p><p>            “How long will this sponsorship last?” asked Yeonjun.</p><p>            “The money’s still coming in since we’re still getting hits on the pictures with the car,” said Soobin nodding, “so far so good and there’s a company asking us about sodas too.”</p><p>            “Us?” asked Yeonjun.</p><p>            “Yeah,” said Soobin nodding, “you’re in almost all my pictures anymore so you’ll be in the deal too and making some of the money.” Yeonjun looked up at him surprised and glanced down to trace the marker over the highways on the map before capping it and leaning back, supporting himself on his elbows.</p><p>            “I think getting in the car with you in that gas station was the best decision I’ve ever made,” he announced. Soobin laughed.</p><p>            “I think asking you to come with me was mine,” said Soobin nodding. “You’re hair’s getting dark, you want to bleach it tonight?”</p><p>            “I’m thinking about going blue actually,” said Yeonjun, “do we have cash to spare?”</p><p>            “Yep, let’s go to the store,” said Soobin standing up, Yeonjun stood up shoving the marker in his pocket and reached for his sneakers.</p><p>            “We should try to get a sneaker sponsor,” said Soobin looking at Yeonjun’s van that were falling apart. Yeonjun shrugged.</p><p>            “Eh, they’ve gotten me this far,” he said, “they were thrifted in the first place. Let’s go.” Soobin grabbed the keys and drove the two of them to the drug store on the corner. The girl working the counter watched them both lazily as they made their way to the box dye section. Yeonjun wandered through reading the boxes before picking up a dark blue. He grabbed a purple and held it up.</p><p>            “Soobinnie, this would look good on you,” he said and Soobin laughed.</p><p>            “No way, hyung,” he said shaking his head.</p><p>            “Oh come on, live a little,” said Yeonjun grinning and shaking the box at him. Soobin looked the smiling woman on the box and then at Yeonjun who was grinning at him. He hesitated and grabbed the box from Yeonjun who whooped and jumped a little as he turned around to lead the way to the front of the store. He grabbed a pack of bubble gum and set it on the counter with his box and Soobin set his with it.</p><p>            “<em>That’ll be 24.12,</em>” said the woman in an accent heavy enough that Soobin was glad he had Yeonjun with him. Yeonjun pulled a handful of bills out of his pocket and handed it over and the woman handed them the bag.</p><p>            “Her accent was thick,” said Soobin as he led the way out of the store, Yeonjun following as he ripped open the package.</p><p>            “<em>Y’all have a goodnight,</em>” said the woman.</p><p>            “<em>Thanks you too,</em>” called Yeonjun behind them before turning to Soobin and nodding. “Yeah, they all talk like that here, we’re in the American South. It’ll get worse from here, slower as we head to Mississippi and thicker in Louisiana and then from there we’ll head west and it’ll get faster and less of a drawl more of a twang.”</p><p>            “How do you know that?” asked Soobin and Yeonjun shrugged.</p><p>            “I like accents, think they’re neat, and the American states have a pretty large variety to learn about,” he said.</p><p>            “It’s a good thing you’re with me,” muttered Soobin shaking his head, “I’d only heard the standard American accent before I started traveling, New York was interesting.” Yeonjun laughed.</p><p>            “Oh I’m sure,” he said nodding, “once we hit Nevada it should even back out a bit and California is pretty standard TV accent for the most part.” Soobin nods and pulls open the car and sings along to the radio as Yeonjun turns the volume up. After so many hours in the car with Yeonjun, Soobin is starting to recognize some of the music.</p><p> </p><p>            By the time they leave Nashville Yeonjun has an old used acoustic guitar in the back seat and enough clothes to have a duffel bag of his own to carry. Soobin has purple hair and Yeonjun’s is bright blue. They get some judgmental looks as they drive through small towns, but neither boy truly cares. Soobin takes more and more pictures as they travel and by the time they get ready to leave Louisiana Yeonjun offers to drive some and Soobin has pictures of him driving with the windows down along the Louisiana bayou. He also has pictures of crocodiles and colorful buildings and a video of both of them screaming while on a tour of haunted Louisiana. They drive up through Arkansas but don’t really stop other than for gas and one night that they spend in the back of the SUV with sleeping bags they bought at a run down Walmart at two in the morning. Soobin adds a picture of Yeonjun sprawled like a starfish sleeping in the dim light of the sunrise to his Instagram and Yeonjun laughs at him. By the time they leave Arkansas Soobin has learned how to pronounce Arkansas and has added a video of Yeonjun sitting in a campsite where the two of them have stopped and are talking to a newly wed couple that’s camping there for the night, the firelight reflects of Yeonjun and he has the guitar in his lap and is singing a song that Soobin doesn’t recognize but is sure the original singer doesn’t sing anywhere near as good. Entering Oklahoma comes with a history lesson from Yeonjun and Soobin decides to video Yeonjun talking about what he knows of Oklahoma history as they wander Robbers Cove. Yeonjun’s smiling at him the whole time and Soobin’s glad not for the first time that he has Yeonjun with him.</p><p>            “Oklahoma has the second highest number of Native Americans in the country,” explained Yeonjun as he looked up at the sky, Soobin reaching to catch his arm and make sure he doesn’t trip on any of the rocks.</p><p>            “The Trail of Tears ended here, it’s this awful part of history where the government forced a bunch of tribes to march all the way across the country and into Oklahoma while it was still just a territory and not a state, there was a lot of deaths, but it’s why there’s so much Native History here,” said Yeonjun nodding. “Oklahoma is one of the wild west states too, known for cowboys and stuff. That’s what Robbers Cove is which is where we are. There’s treasure here apparently, but no one’s ever found it. Oklahoma is pretty famous for their rodeos and their outlaws and there’s some pretty wild horror stories too. We aren’t stopping there but there’s a place that’s called the Gateway to Hell which is just like insane. And it’s in Tornado Alley so there’s tornadoes a lot, I don’t think it’s tornado season but I don’t really know. There’s a handful of really famous country singers from Oklahoma too, we’d have seen their stars in Nashville, Soobinnie. Route 66 runs through Oklahoma too which is what we’re getting ready to hop onto after this, it’s the Mother Road and is a famous American Highway, we’ll take it all the way to New Mexico and then jump off of it to drop down into Arizona. It’ll take us through Tulsa which is one of the cities in Oklahoma, I read a book in high school about Tulsa, and there was an 80s movie about it that was really good it had Ralph Macchio and Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise when they were young.”</p><p>            “Hyung, I don’t know who any of those people are,” said Soobin giggling and Yeonjun shrugged.</p><p>            “Tom Cruise is in Top Gun and a lot of other things, you might recognize his picture,” said Yeonjun. “Route 66 will take us through Amarillo too and we’ll stop at Cadillac Ranch and the Palo Duro Canyon which is the second biggest canyon in the USA, which will be awesome until we actually reach Arizona where we’ll see the Grand Canyon.” He yelps as he falls and the video goes blurry and cuts off as Soobin scrambles to help him up. The next afternoon Soobin takes pictures of them in Tulsa outside a church that Yeonjun swears is in the background of the movie he watched. Soobin laughs at him but the city is pretty and the people are nice and someone offers to take a picture of both of them and gives them directions to a place called the center of the universe which results in a memory of the two of them yelling at a concrete sidewalk and Soobin loves his life. They stop for band aids on their way out of town since Yeonjun has managed to scrap both his knees from chasing Soobin across the sidewalk at the center of the universe and later that night Soobin uploads a picture of Yeonjun at a gas station outside of a tiny town he doesn’t know the name of, Yeonjun’s back to him and his face tilted up, illuminated by a giant glowing, color changing pop bottle. They buy gas and Soobin drags Yeonjun into the gas station and buys six different sodas to try picking the ones with the weirdest names and dares Yeonjun to drink something called Kitty Piddle. They drive late into the night and sleep in the car, waking up with the sunrise, Soobin gets a picture of Yeonjun with sleep mussed hair in a shirt that Soobin is pretty sure is his not Yeonjun’s sitting with his feet propped up on the window and his seat tilted back, drinking a purple soda out of a glass bottle and Soobin thinks it fits the aesthetic of their roadtrip together very well and the way the sunrise paints pinks and oranges across Yeonjun’s face makes him wonder why Oklahoma isn’t known for their sunrises alone.</p><p>            Leaving Oklahoma and entering Texas doesn’t quite feel like they’ve really left Oklahoma, not for several hours until they’ve reached a point where there’s a giant cross statue off in the distance. Soobin asks about it and Yeonjun shrugs and googles it saying it’s some kind of a missionary monument or something. They don’t stop since Soobin’s worried they won’t find their way back to the highway and the local accents are strong enough that even Yeonjun’s not sure what they’re saying half the time. Amarillo, Texas is bigger than Soobin is expecting after the Oklahoma towns, they don’t plan to spend the night there and seeing the Palo Duro Canyon is an experience. Soobin buys Yeonjun a brightly painted glass frog in the gift shop and Yeonjun buys Soobin a geod rock to break at some point in the future. They go to see Cadillac Ranch and another tourist offers their left over spray paint to Yeonjun and Soobin and the first picture of Soobin is added to the Instagram account. It’s messy and taken by Yeonjun and has Soobin spray painting a smiley face and his name onto a car already covered in spray paint. They leave with flecks of paint on their shoes and their jeans and a picture from a kind tourist of both of them in front of it. The mother of the small family who took their picture for them asks where they’re headed so they tell her and she tells them to spend the night and stock up on water bottles and explains that Amarillo is the last stop from here to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They thank her and stop by a store to stock up on food and gas and buy a motel room for the night. They start off in the early morning and within four hours find themselves thankful for the woman looking out for the two young boys travelling on their own, as there really is nothing but desert for miles and miles. By the time they reach the mountains they pull over at the first rest stop and take turns in the portapotty before taking pictures of the mountains surrounding them. They camp for the night in the mountains before heading further in and down towards Roswell. The alien museum is a hack but Yeonjun has a blast and Soobin spends the whole time laughing. Yeonjun walks away with a shirt that reads I believe and Soobin has one that reads aliens abduct him instead. He also now has an alien keychain that hangs from the review mirror. They stop at a McDonalds that is shaped like a UFO and Yeonjun forces him to take a selfie in front of it for the Instagram account, their fries are stale and the tea is too sweat but it’s the novelty that it’s shaped like a UFO that made it fun in the first place. They drive to White Sands from there and add another national park to their slowly growing list of places they’ve stopped. It’s beautiful and intensely hot, but they still spend two hours in the heat and Soobin comes away with a dozen pictures.</p><p>            Arizona is still mostly desert and the Grand Canyon is stunning, Soobin buys a book about rock formations and decides by the time he leaves America he’ll be able to read most of it without Yeonjun translating for him. He buys a notebook and starts writing down places to come back to someday and adds the Gateway to Hell in Oklahoma, Santa Fe in New Mexico, and Camping in the Grand Canyon. Yeonjun drags him to see a meteor crater from there and they’re both disappointed that they can’t go in it, they drive up to Jerome excited about seeing a ghost town and are disappointed again to realize that it’s a heavily populated tourist destination now. They leave Arizona from there and travel toward Nevada. The desert is cool at night and Soobin has gotten into the habit of filling up the tank of the car whenever they pass a gas station for fear they’ll run out in the desert. The stars in the desert are blindingly bright and Soobin swears he could touch them. They lay out on the roof of the car one night and Soobin tells Yeonjun what he knows of the constellations, they’re both excited to realize they’ve timed their traveling right to watch a meteor shower and Soobin will treasure the memory always. Las Vegas is brilliant and colorful and chaos after so many days of fields and desert and they both wander the stores the whole afternoon, Soobin takes a thousand pictures of Yeonjun under neon lights. They don’t fit in amongst all the glitter and glam in their worn jeans and thin t-shirts but they have fun. Yeonjun buys him a camera while they’re there and Soobin starts taking pictures with both. They gain a sponsorship for a water bottle brand and they make sure to include them in a couple pictures before they leave Vegas. Soobin buys them both warm hoodies while they have the money for good ones and they leave Vegas. They stop at little towns and gas stations all the way to LA and Soobin’s camera roll is filled with thousands of pictures of the two of them in every place they stop. Yeonjun gives him what he knows of different state histories and then tells him to add Death Valley to his list of places to visit. LA is just as loud as Vegas and they still don’t fit and Soobin’s car sponsorship officially comes to an end. It’s October by now and the weather is slowly starting to get chilly so the beach isn’t much of an option but they still decide to go.</p><p>            “Where are you going from here, Soobinnie?” Yeonjun’s not looking at him as he asks this. He’s opted to watch the sunset over the ocean water. Soobin snaps a picture with the camera that always hangs around his neck now.</p><p>            “I don’t know,” he said finally. “South I suppose. Mexico maybe. That could be fun.”</p><p>            “Mexico?” asked Yeonjun, “you’ll need someone who speaks Spanish.” Soobin shrugs, he’s traveled in places he doesn’t speak the language before.</p><p>            “Are you coming with me?” asked Soobin and Yeonjun looks up at him surprised.</p><p>            “You want me to?” he asked.</p><p>            “Of course,” said Soobin nodding, “I offered for you to come with me, I meant in general not only as far as the road would take us.” Yeonjun grins at him and Soobin could swear it’s brighter than the night sky. They buy two plane tickets that night, one way to Mexico City. By the time they leave LA behind them, Yeonjun’s hand is in his and is excitedly watching the plane take off from the window while Soobin answers how long it will take them to get to Mexico from LA and what the plan is from there. Soobin snaps a picture of their hands together in the seat, the worn hem of his hoodie brushing against the new beaded bracelets Yeonjun had bought in Arizona, and uploads it to Instagram once they’re at cruising altitude and he can buy wi-fi.</p><p>
  <em>Goodbye America, I’m taking the best part with me. Hola Mexico here we come.</em>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i've driven that stretch of route 66 from amarillo to albuquerque and it's wild, there's nothing but sand as far as the eye can see for like four hours until you start seeing mesas in the distance and then the mountains. it's beautiful but definitely don't do it at night and fill up on gas before you go. </p><p>also not mentioned in the story but if anyone's in america deciding to travel that specific stretch of highway GO IN A GROUP!!!!!!! this is really important that's a major sex trafficking highway people disappear out there all the time it's super scary </p><p>the book and movie mentioned about tulsa is SE Hinton's the Outsiders that I had to read in high school and it's incredible and everyone should read it. the movie is also where a lot of the 80s stars got their start. </p><p>there is a gas station with a giant color changing light up pop bottle on route 66 somewhere in Oklahoma if you take it leaving tulsa going towards texas and kitty piddle is a real drink that my brother made me try once, it was weird tasting lemonade and it's pink if i remember right. </p><p>memphis is a really cool place, the rock and soul museum is real and was one of my favorite places to visit there, it's walking distance from Beale Street too which is also cool but kinda scary at night. graceland is cool but expensive and not worth the price of the ticket. my family definitely climbed up onto the roof of our car to look over the wall instead of going inside. </p><p>nashville is cool and the country music hall of fame is also cool but nearly as cool as the rock and soul museum, or maybe i'm just a nerd that likes history lol. </p><p>i've only been to one place in louisiana and it was transylvania louisiana which is a place that google maps goes to die and it's freaky and empty and basically a ghost town, but i'd love to go to New Orleans someday. </p><p>cadillac ranch in amarillo texas is pretty cool but bring spray paint or it's not nearly as much fun. the palo duro canyon does sell painted ceramic frogs that are pretty neat, i unfortunately do not own one. (i'm also 80% sure i've spelled palo duro wrong this whole time but i'm too lazy to google it right now. it'll probably get edited later)</p><p>white sands in new mexico is beautiful and very hot and if you're wondering a regular sled does not work for sand sledding out there, but it's stunning and there's nothing but pure white sand for miles and miles and miles and then the mountains. </p><p>there is an alien museum in roswell new mexico. it is completely ridiculous and was very entertaining. my cousins took me for my birthday the year i spent the summer with them. there is a ufo shaped mcdonalds and their food is complete crap even for a mcdonalds but it's still cool because it's a ufo shaped mcdonalds. </p><p>jerome arizona is a very disappointing ghost town and really is an over populated tourist trap now. the grand canyon is incredible and someday i'm going to camp there. the stars in the desert are stunning and one of my favorite parts of the drive, but i'm a city girl so it might just be me excited about the lack of light pollution. </p><p>oklahoma is full of outlaw lore so is new mexico both states are also chock full of some really freaky ghost stories and local legends if you're into that. the gateway to hell is a real place in oklahoma, i've never been but it's a real place. there's also a really freaky section in one of the mountains in ceder crest new mexico that has like animal and human heads that hangs from the trees. </p><p>i have a couple of scenes in this chapter that i decided against including so i might make a bonus fic with little snippets that i didn't end up including in the finished fic </p><p>i definitely did this instead of the homework i should be doing (: i should not be an honors student i have no idea what i'm doing </p><p>also the bit about the accents is totally true i learned that in my history of english class last semester and my prof's wife is from indiana which has the standard academic american english accent and my prof is from texas and he said that she couldn't understand a word that anyone was saying while they lived in texas until they'd lived there for several years. and one of my roommates was from chicago and i'm from a south-western state and my roommate would vouch for me that i sounded like gibberish if i wasn't paying attention to what i was telling her </p><p>not all the end notes are going to be this long since i've never left the US before but i do put a ton of research into my writing and will do my absolute best to be accurate about the rest of it :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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